Reinventing Our Commonweal Local Community Survey
On Sunday, November 17 of last year, I received an e-mail message that I had not seen in more than three years "New Member for your Commonweal Local Community." When I googled the person's name, I found an association with John Carroll University. Instantly the idea formed. This November is the Centennial Issue of Commonweal. Perhaps now is the time, and perhaps John Carroll may be the place, to begin reinventing Commonweal Local Communities.
By November 24, I had posted on this website the first draft of:
Analyzing the data from the 29 meetings that occurred between September 13, 2017 until we shut down after February 24, 2020, a total of 36 names appeared at one time or another on the membership list. Almost all of these were Commonweal subscribers. In 2018 there were about 165 Commonweal subscribers with an email address within thirty miles of the center of Cleveland. Therefore, about one out of five subscribers with an e-mail address expressed some interest in our CLC. Commonweal provided me with the zip codes of all subscribers with an email address who lived within thirty miles of downtown Cleveland.
Analyzing that data I concluded "In order to have CLC meetings within easy driving distance, there would have to be at least four or five CLC groups and unless half of the subscribers in the area came, non-subscribers would have to be recruited if more than six persons were desired at meetings." |
The Models post recommends establishing a network of CLCs most of whose members would be recruited from non-subscribers and using this blog to create and maintain a virtual communications network. Using more than one CLC model may attract more people.
I continued to revise the draft during December, planning to send an e-mail out in January for comments and suggestions. However, on December 29, Betty and I discovered Bishop's Malesic's Pastoral Letter on the Diocesan Website.
“It’s simply a letter about how we can draw closer to Christ, and there is no controversy in that,” Bishop Malesic said. “Let’s just pray 15 minutes a day; join a small group; invite your Catholic neighbors and friends together to have a cup of coffee and talk about ‘Why are you Catholic?’; ‘How can you become a disciple of Jesus?’ I think these are the basic things.”
-from a media interview of the bishop
I invite every Catholic in the Diocese of Cleveland to read this pastoral letter in its entirety, as I have written it with each of you in mind. Make notes and underline your copy of the letter; Consider reading it more than just once. then, meet with some other Catholics who have read this letter and discuss it in a small group. Over the next year I would like this letter to be at the forefront of conversations around the diocese. (page 2) |
I have developed the Saint Gabriel Hours blog that uses virtual resources to help individuals, households and small groups discern the place of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer in their lives using fifteen minutes of prayer a day. The bishop is very confident that each of us can decide the best way of pray. The website is designed to enable every person to decide how to best pray the Hours without going to meetings or reading other materials. Ideally those who successfully use the website will encourage others to follow them.
Our Commonweal Local Community is an ideal place to study the use of virtual resources to make the Hours accessible in the daily lives of Catholics. Sharing our experiences will improve the website. Publishing the results of a survey on our website could be of useful both within our diocese and nationally. Bishop Woost becomes chairperson of the USCCB liturgy committee this November. If we do this well, our CLC and Commonweal could earn the gratitude of the diocese and the national conference of bishops.
The Models post suggests that a variety of CLCs may be a very attractive way to implement the bishop's letter. Most importantly the bishop encourages each of us begin forming small support community and our families, friends and neighbors. In other words, we are not limited by models of prayer and community provided by the diocese or our parishes.
I decided to complete revising my response to the bishop's letter by March 1st in time for Lent. However, Pope Francis hospitalization and the possibility of a new Pope suggested putting off discussion of both posts until after a conclave.
On April 7th I received an e-mail from Ellen Koneck, now Executive Director at Commonweal. She had been the CLC contact person for Commonweal before spending several years with another organization.
We are inviting you—a small group of readers, contributors, donors, staff, and board members—to participate in a very short survey. This survey will help us not only reflect on our current editorial and programmatic offerings but also gauge a sense of the role Commonweal could or ought to be playing in the current landscape. The results of this survey will serve as prompts for dialogue at an upcoming meeting with Commonweal’s board of directors. |
Now, finally, the time has come to begin in earnest the process of reinventing Commonweal Local Communities. Our bishop has provided a very promising framework for doing so. Commonweal is rethinking how they are doing things. In the coming weeks and months, a New Papacy will be unfolding.
WHY THIS SURVEY
The process of our walking together with our bishop, the new pope, and the Commonweal Editors needs to begin with a grassroots consultation with each of our CLC members here in the Cleveland area. We begin the process of talking about what we can do together by listening to each other. In our case, it is not so that bishops, or pastors or even Commonweal Editors can make better decisions, it is so each of us can make better decisions.
Trained in social psychology and experienced in planning processes both in the mental health system and in parishes I have often used anonymous surveys to surface the experience and diverse views of meeting participants before conducting face to face discussions.
The people who show up at meetings and voice their opinions are not necessarily representative of everyone else. I am well aware that there exists a great diversity of talents and interests in our CLC. This survey is designed to surface and use all of them rather than choosing among them. Our community should move beyond the democracy model where a majority imposes its will upon others, or the consumer model of catering only to major markets. |
TIME FRAME
Each member has received an e-mail with the 28 questions listed below. Please insert your brief responses in that e-mail and return it to me by Saturday May 10th at the latest. I encourage most of you to complete your results by the time the conclave begins on May 7th so that you are influenced more by our local situation than what happens in the Vatican
I will group similar responses to each question together hope to publish the results on ASAP after the deadline. We will probably have a new Pope by then
WHAT WILL BE DONE WITH THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY?
The object of the survey is to link together people with similar interests who can then begin e-mail discussions of the next steps in specific areas. Examples are given below.
SURVEY QUESTIONS
Virtual Dimension of Our Commonweal Local Community
At the same time that Commonweal began promoting Commonweal Local Communities, they abolished the dotCommonweal blog which had been a great source of virtual community for a decade. Some participants did not take its closing easily. At least a dozen of us decided to continue with our own blog. NEWBLOG (not its real name) was up and running within a week!
We have never attempted to add participants or readers. Some of us contribute a post each week and a comment each day on other's posts. We are from all around the country and diverse backgrounds. We now have a total of over a two thousand posts! Initially that was about thirty a month, one a day. Our number of contributors is down to about a half a dozen, and posts to about half of what they were before.
1. Should we encourage CLC members to contribute reviews of Commonweal articles on our website.? Are you willing to be a contributor? Would you likely be a reader?
(The articles need not be limited to current issues. We have missed discussing a lot of issues since 2020. It would be a good way to audition our favorite articles from that time for future meetings. Posts are a good way to get to know people without going to a meeting. You do not need to use you full time. For example, I could be Jack R., or J.R. or Jack Brown (my mother's maiden name. Posts about our planning process would also be encouraged. Commonweal contributors also made posts about articles in other media, e.g. the NYTimes, or the Atlantic. We could move to that after clearing up the backlog of Commonweal articles Those who volunteer to contribute will become an e-mail support group to develop and manage this proposal, Learning how to post in Blogger is relatively easy, but I am willing to post for members who may want to make just a few posts.)
2. Should we encourage CLC members to comment on posts on our website?
(Comments are tricky. One usually has to employ moderation, i.e. put people on hold, to eliminate internet trolls. In the old Commonweal Blog each contributor could (and did) eliminate undesirable comments. But that takes time and effort. NEWBLOG has not had much of a problem, but we have not tried to attract viewers. Our administrator has the ability to delete the few undesirables that have come our way. Once we have fleshed out what to do about posts, those who want comments on our website would become an e-mail support group to develop this proposal.)
3. Should we encourage e-mail discussions about posts on our website? Would you participate?
(This eliminates the problem of trolls and allows for more frank discussion of issues. However, we all suffer from e-mail overload. If you want to post on blogger, you have to get a gmail account. If you don't already have a gmail account, you could use that for e-mail discussions. Once we have fleshed out what to do about posts, those who want to discuss posts in email groups will become an e-mail support group for developing that idea).
4. Should we encourage subscribers in the area to become virtual members of this CLC even if they are not interested in coming to our meetings?
(Commonweal was NOT willing to give us access to e-mail addresses of subscribers but they did do a one-time mailing informing them of our website. I am suggesting that they regularly inform subscribers in our area that they can become virtual members of our local community by giving us their e-mail address and ZIPCODE. That would allow us to notify subscribers of special events, new meeting groups and new places. It would also allow subscribers to contribute posts, comment, and participate in e-mail discussion groups. This may be a great way to accommodate elderly subscribers, those busy with work or children, and the sick and handicapped.)
The Bishop's Pastoral Letter: General
5. What is your general impression of the bishop's letter?
(Had you read it before getting this e-mail? Had you heard anything about it? in the media? in your parish? received it in the mail? What are others saying about it? )
6. Was my post in response to the bishop's letter helpful to you? Might it be helpful in recruiting new CLC members?
(My post was intended to do what the bishop asked, namely begin conversations with others about the Letter. While primarily aimed at CLC members, it also intended to start conversations with others, e.g. members of my parish, especially with people whom I want to recruit as CLC members. I also thought it might be useful for other CLC members in recruiting nonsubscribers. Or maybe we need a post or series of posts written by a one or more of CLC members on the Letter? Any ideas? volunteers?)
The Pastoral Letter: Fifteen Minutes of Prayer
7. What do you think of the Letter's insistence that we should each pray at least fifteen minutes a day?
(I liked his idea because I am promoting fifteen minutes of QUALITY a day from Morning and/or Evening Prayer using YouTube videos on Saint Gabriel Hours website. While I greatly value a wide diversity of prayer styles, I am a little concerned that some people might see this ideal as is just another requirement in addition to Sunday Mass. So, in my response I made it clear that we should value and respect the many people who pray daily but don't go to Mass every weekend, and that we should make the ideal one of quality of prayer rather than quantity. What are your thoughts?)
My Saint Gabriel Hours Website
8. Are you willing to spend fifteen minutes a day praying Morning or Evening Prayer using the virtual resources on my Saint Gabriel Hours website? This will take four weeks since the psalms are arranged in a four-week psalter. Start at your convenience. You will need to fill out an anonymous survey very much like this one.
(Virtual resources make it very easy to pray the hours. No breviary to purchase, or ribbons to figure out what to pray. My website is simple enough to use with just one click but has sufficient options to customize, and many suggestions about how to use the website. The website is subtitled "Praying Anywhere, Anytime, with Anyone". So, creativity is encouraged. I will be available for questions.
I need feedback on the website, and the church needs feedback on people's experience in praying the Hours using virtual resources. This seems an ideal project for CLCs. Certainly, we should be for liturgy, especially the revised Liturgy of the Hours, and we should be for helping Catholics find ways to discern how to make the Hours part of their daily life, and we should be interested in using modern technology.
Let me be clear that I am promoting discernment about praying the Hours. Like the bishop, I believe that each person is fully capable of deciding the best way to spend fifteen minutes in prayer. I hope he will be very pleased that I giving people another option. Bishop Woost will become head of the NCCB Liturgy Committee in November. I am hoping he will be very interested in my website. Both should be interested in the results of our survey. This appears to be a great opportunity for our CLC to provide some leadership.
While individuals do this survey alone, I am open to connecting members involved in the project with each other if they want to form a virtual and/or physical group. I also encourage members to recruit other persons, e.g. member of your parish for this project.
The Pastoral Letter: Small Communities
10. What do you think of bishop's proposal that we should each have our own small support community?
(I have been involved in RENEW several times and also in Bible Study. What I found in all the occasions was that the groups were very dependent upon the parish for continuing. I was extremely happy that the bishop thinks we can form our own group. I think that every subscriber to Commonweal has all the resources they need to form a CLC among their family, friends and neighbors. I also agree that those which we form ourselves may be the best support communities.)
11. What do you see as the potential of CLCs to be ideal support communities for the bishop's vision of a flourishing apostolic church?
(My greatest disappointment with RENEW and Bible Study were that they were too church oriented and did not easily lead to discussing our lives in the world. The bishop is very concerned that we each understand our own particular mission in the world. Since that is particular to each person, having a lot of other people with various missions discussing life in the world seems more promising for the bishop's goal)
The Pastoral Letter: Missionary Disciples
12 What do you think of the bishop’s call to be missionary disciples?
(The bishop realizes this is going be to a hard sell for many people who just want to pray and lead good quiet lives. In my response I have an analysis and some suggestions about how to deal with this issue. What are your thoughts and suggestions?)
13. As a part of being missionary disciples, the bishop thinks that we should each be able to tell our own story of life- long conversion. Are you comfortable in doing that? How might we integrate this with our life as a CLC?
(In my response to the bishops letter I have some suggestions on how to go about doing this. I guess I am concerned that some people might think about one time events, e.g. Evangelicals being born again which probably is why the bishop called it life-long conversion. I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.)
14. As part of being missionary disciples the bishop wants us to each be able to articulate our own concrete mission in life. Are you comfortable in doing that?
(Again, I think the bishop's use of words concrete and specific indicates that he is aware that there might be some problems in doing this. In our issues -oriented political society, people might say that their mission is being pro-life, or social justice, or racially harmony, or immigration. The bishop seems to be interested in concrete actions, like serving in a food pantry, or visiting people in jail. He was also likely thinking of the concrete things we do in our jobs, families, neighborhoods, and civic lives. In my response to the bishop's letter I have some suggestions for how to do this and give my own mission.)
Models for Reinventing CLCs
15. What is the size of your ideal CLC meeting? What is the minimum number of people for a meeting? What is the maximum number of people?
(My answer would be 3 to 12 with an ideal of about 8. Certainly, the larger meetings of 8 to 10 people were more interesting. However, the more people there are, the more likely the meeting is to have some participants who merely listen. We had two meetings where there was only one person besides Betty and me. Both were occasions that enabled us to get to know someone better.)
16 What is your ideal number of CLC meetings per year?
(We met regularly almost every month. Some CLCs meet eight times a year, skipping December and the summer months. Given our weather conditions maybe we should skip December through March and meet eight times from April thru November.)
17. Are you willing to recruit nonsubscribers as members?
(My suggestion is that each person who is willing to recruit someone recruit one person a year, that only one new person be introduced per meeting, and that be well planned so that some members arrive early. If half the people in a group were willing to recruit one person (e.g. 4 out of 8 members) and if half of those recruited (2 out of 4) continued, the group would have a steady but moderate growth rate.)
18. Which of the models in the post on models appear most likely to attract nonsubscribers to CLCs?
(The models are not mutually exclusive, but some models fit together better than others. Your response could include combinations as well as pure models).
19. What do you see as ideal locations for meetings?
(Our first organizational meeting was held at the Brewery. Everyone agreed it was too noisy, no one but the organizer was interested in eating, and few of us were interesting in drinking. The organizer (not me) offered his house. The rest of the members were interested in meeting in a parish or other Catholic institution such as a school)
20. Concrete suggestions for meeting location? Are you willing to be the contact person with that institution?
(I was able to obtain permission to meet at Saint Noel because the pastor, the pastoral associate and the music minister knew me well. I knew the correct answers to the pastoral associate's questions. Yes, we were willing to take Monday nights when they had few contacts. We were willing to accept members of their parish. However, I did negotiate that we could require advance registration and could reject parish members who failed to read the articles. I agreed to them placing an announcement of our meetings in their bulletin. Most importantly I agreed to be the contact person with their organization.
The pastor, pastoral associate and music minister have all left Noel, Betty and I have not attended since before the pandemic and are not likely to resume attendance. If Noel is desired someone else will have to step up to negotiate that with the current staff.)
21 What days of the week are bad days for you?
22.What days of the week are ideal for you?
23. What is your Zip Code?
24. What is the maximum number of minutes you are willing to travel to go to a CLC meeting?
25. Are you willing to accept smaller meeting sizes in order to get a closer meeting or would you prefer to travel a longer distance in order to have a bigger size meeting?
26. What do you see as the most important legacy of Pope Francis for CLCs
(I think a spirituality of walking together, listening to one another)
27. How important do you think the next Papacy will be for our CLC?
(I think our Bishop's pastoral letter provides a great framework for working in this diocese that will not likely be altered by the next Pope.)
28. Any other suggestions or comments?
(My website argues that doing things fifteen minutes a day is the best and most efficient way of doing things. You might try that out for doing this survey.)
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